COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTIONA group of hop-heads and publicans challenged our Beer Camp (#19) brewers to push the extremes of whole-cone hop brewing. The result is this: a 100 IBU, whole-cone hurricane of flavor. Simply put- Hoptimum: the biggest whole-cone IPA we have ever produced. Aggressively hopped, dry-hopped and torpedoed with our exclusive new hop varieties for ultra-intense flavors and aromas.

Hops, hops and more hops are the stars of this big, whole-cone Imperial IPA. Resinous ‘new-school’ and exclusive hop varieties carry the bold and aromatic nose. The flavor follows the aroma with layers of aggressive hoppiness, featuring notes of grapefruit rind, rose, lilac, cedar and tropical fruit – all culminating in a dry and lasting finish.

12 oz bottle (4-pack) poured into a goblet. Head is white, very thin, atop an orange amber beer. Aromas are complex of floral, piney, earthy hops and no perceptible grain or malt. Flavors are similar to aroma. Beer has a decent carbonation, chewy, sticky mouthfeel. Alcohol is warming, but not hot. Very drinkable.
---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

UPDATED: JAN 13, 2013 Very clear, bright orange pour, nice amount of head. Nice hoppy aroma. Pine, oil, some fruitiness, and grass. Very oily taste and texture. Obviously very fresh hops were used but its too oily for my taste. Getting a little pine and grass too. I’m going to let my other bottles sit for a bit in the hops that the oilyness fades a bit. Will re-rate if it changes. 1/13/13 re-rate - This beer gets a tad better with some age but I still think it’s a bit overrated.

12oz bottle poured into a snifter. Pours a clear almost peach color with a thin bit of white head. Aroma is strongly citrus hops. Lots of orange and grapefruit. Taste is medium-heavy bitter and light sweet. Grapefruit and orange with a dash of honey. Full bodied with a creamy yet oily texture. Lively carbonation and a long finish. Overall, awesome. I could drink this every day!

Draft. Pours golden orange with a white head. Huge citric and piney hops with some lighter lemon and cat piss. Just enough of a sweet malt profile to make it drinkable, but this is definitely quite the hop bomb. I prefer just a bit more restraint in my IPAs, but this is still really good.

On tap at Fire Works Pizza in Arlington, VA over the weekend. Served in a sample glass.
Pours a clear golden-peach color with a nice white head and some nice lacing on the way down. The nose carries some good tropical fruits behind some strong orange and citrus. The flavor falls back quite a bit from there, as the bitterness gets to me a bit too much for the hop flavor. Body is light-medium with average carbonation and a hefty bitterness paired with a fair amount of alcohol. Nose was by far the best part of this one.

Pours a nice clear amber/copper color. Good head retention on this one as well. aroma is grapefruit, woody/pine and toast. Flavor is nice too. Same thing, grapefruit, earthy/pine notes and a nice bitter finish.

Nice, reasonably priced Impy IPA. Would be a go to for the price except at 10% you wouldn’t want to go there too much. Nice floral and citrus on the nose and solid malt to carry the hops. Nice option to have out there though. I might have rated this higher but I tasted it against Knee Deep’s Simtra which is a stellar TIPA.

beautiful aroma-piney, citrus, earthy all in one but not muddled. Sticky-icky resin flavors. At the start seems like a pretty easy-drinking DIPA but after the second bottle it becomes overwhelming with palate fatigue and kills my tongue. A fine example nonetheless.

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